If men come out in droves to watch horses race around the track, then imagine what would happen if the contestants are beautiful girls, running in bikinis?

Needless to say, it's controversial:

When they came up with the idea of a women’s horse race, the guys at The Gold Coast Turf Club in Queensland, Australia probably thought something like “if guys come to the race track to see horses run, just imagine how many of them will come to see beautiful women dressed in skimpy bikinis do the exact same thing.” The Bikini Track Sprint is scheduled to take place on December 4, with over 150 girls racing for the prize of 5,000 Australian dollars.

Believe it or not, in a poll conducted by a local tourism website, just 27% percent of voter said they find his kind of event degrading for women, while the other 73% were perfectly alright with it. Even the members of Women in Racing, a Gold-Coast group that promotes racing, said they can think of better ways of marketing races, but they’ll back anything that has something to do with racing.

Meh. When serious female racers compete, they don't wear much more than bikinis. The idea of guys gathering to watch for the sole reason of oggling them is kinda trashy, but that's Gold Coast for you. At least they're getting real competitive runners. Bikini models trying to run that distance...yowch.